Most growth expected in Dutch snack vegetable seg ment

Henri Schockman, Levarht: “Most growth expected in Dutch snack vegetable segment”

In the Netherlands, the current greenhouse vegetable season has gotten off to a good start. "The supply from Spain and Morocco ended earlier or was delayed. That was for various reasons and created a gap between the seasons. There were, for example, many Spanish bell peppers in production in the first phase of the cultivation. But they then had many cold nights in the second part, at the beginning of the year. That resulted in a low supply. That, in turn, made people in Northwest Europe want to switch to the Dutch product sooner. But the Netherlands still had insufficient supply. So that then led to high demand and higher prices. That was in the week before Easter," says Levarht's Global Sourcing Manager, Henri Schockman.

"The Dutch supply is now normalizing, and the market's relaxing more. The vegetables' settings, however, remain rather irregular. So, there will still be peaks and troughs in the coming weeks, although not as extreme as before Easter. Acreage-wise, somewhat fewer green peppers, and slightly more orange peppers have been planted. But the latter area was also drastically reduced last year. The season should generally be similar from a cultivation perspective."

GOOD POSITION IN MEXICO

"The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to several variables affecting this market. Airfreight availability has still not recovered, which is affecting our exports to North America, in particular. There is still a lot of product being transported on passenger flights. Also, specifically for the United States, we have to deal with a substantial expansion of the Canadian crop. Our advantage is that we have a good position in Mexican cultivation. As soon as there is more demand in the US, we quickly get that information here, in the Netherlands. We can, therefore, respond and adjust," continues Henri.

"The problem with exports to the Middle East doesn't lie with air freight, as such. It is much more that market's expatriates we are missing because of the lockdown. I, however, think if the world recovers quickly from this virus, it will positively affect the demand for our healthy products. The United Nations, for good reason, has made fruit and vegetables a focal point this year. I truly hope that consumers' mindsets will change for the better. It would be great if the Dutch government were to put its money where its mouth is, though. It should reduce the VAT on fruit and vegetables."

TREND TOWARD SNACK VEGETABLES

On a production level, Henri foresees growth in, particularly, the snack vegetable assortment. "Because of the increasing demand for healthy food, but also because of consumer trends. The younger generation eats very differently. Their purchases are much more focused on convenience and speed. There is a parallel shift within the tomato segment. This year some loose tomato growers switched to a different product. They had missed out on sales to the foodservice sector. That move reinforces this shift. I do expect, however, that there will continue to be sufficient demand for loose tomatoes in certain markets. Especially once the foodservice sector opens up again."

"Levarht made its name mainly as an overseas exporter. But in recent years, our North-Western and Central European retail sector sales have increased sharply. The nice thing is that we specialize in greenhouse vegetables as well as grapes and melons. Those strengthen each other. Our greenhouse vegetable customers also buy fruit from us and vice versa." According to Henri, Brexit's impact has remained manageable. "Last year, this was regarded with the necessary suspicion. It has not become any easier, but the situation has not become as scary as it seemed at first. That's partly because inspection regulation changes have been pushed back."

SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION

The company's organic range remains limited. "We mostly supply this if our clients want organic products along with the conventional range. Spain grows most of its produce in full soil, so that country is supplying more organic vegetables. In the Netherlands, too, I think this sustainability discussion still needs to be held. We sell produce in America as organic,” explains Schockman.

“But we're not allowed to market it as such in the Netherlands. Organic is an excel-

The Levarht building in Aalsmeer

lent solution for certain crops. But people should pay more attention to how innovative and sustainable conventional Dutch greenhouse farming is. Now, the focus is on nature and the environment. We are global pioneers. It’s not for nothing that the entire Dutch horticultural supply chain is active worldwide." Levarht keeps a close eye on consumer packaging trends too. "Pre-COVID-19, plastic reduction was given a lot of attention. The pandemic year taught us that plastic has user-friendly and hygiene advantages. We aren't anti-plastic reduction, only if it's detrimental to hygiene and user-friendliness. Here, too, we carefully consider our customers' demands. We have a sustainability manager for this and other things," says Henri.

BIG DATA

"Clients are also increasingly looking at the supply chain's reliability. That question is much broader than just what products you have to offer. I'm interested to see how the sales models of the future will look. For now, traditional retail still accounts for most sales. But the coronavirus pandemic made online sales skyrocket. We won't easily get a B2C platform because we'd then be competing with our own retail customers.”

“But at the B2B level, an e-commerce platform could well meet a need when there are surplusses. Data, too, is becoming increasingly important. We already have a model that links information to weather data. It gives us a better idea of expected orders. The more data you add, the more accurate it becomes. The next step is to link this to production data. Then you can seamlessly coordinate supply and demand," Henri concludes. (IH) 

HSchockman@levarht.nl